+ thirty seven

With her days in Korea coming to an end, Narda started making arrangements for the apartment. Neither she or Nari would be living there for a while, but she didn't want to stop paying the rent because she knew that if her friend were to wake up, she would have nowhere to go. Kyungsoo offered to pay the rent in her absence, but Narda refused. She had always been the type to refuse favors from people. She knew he was doing it out of the kindness of his heart, but she didn't like feeling like she owed anyone anything. 

Instead she asked a favor of her brother. She wanted him to continue paying the bills for the apartment and she would find a way to pay him back, working at the university while she finished up her degree and getting a job outside of school as well. Her brother assured her it was no trouble and he would gladly pay the apartment bills for her. 

It was one week before she was to return home when Chanyeol texted her, asking if they could have lunch together. He said that he had news for her, but he wouldn't say anything more over text. Narda wasn't sure what it was about. Perhaps he had found out that she was leaving and would try to convince her to stay. But no one else knew about it--just her, the school she worked at, and Kyungsoo. But she knew Kyungsoo wouldn't tell a soul. He was one of the most loyal people she knew and they had grown to be really close friends in the time they spent visiting Nari.

He arrived at her apartment during his lunch hour and a small smile was visible in his eyes as he saw her. He had adopted the same method as Baekhyun, the one Narda taught them--wearing the Mexico jacket and sunglasses. People didn't seem to catch on until now that they were not Mexican tourists. 

Narda pulled him in for a hug and led him into the apartment. She closed the door behind him and the two went to sit down on the couch. Before Narda could even ask what he wanted to talk to her about, he reached into the jacket's pocket and pulled out an envelope. He handed to her silently and Narda took it from him. Her eyes scanned over the front. The envelope read: Court of Seoul. Her eyes widened in awe as she fathomed it could only mean one of three things. It could be about the man Narda pressed charges against for the incident on the beach, or the restraining order Baekhyun put against her almost a year prior. Or maybe it was about her marriage to the boy sitting a couple inches from her on the couch.

She tore the envelope open and pulled out the letter. It was three sheets of paper. One was of information regarding Chanyeol--his full name, date of birth, place of birth, and so on. Under marital status, the form read divorced, formally married to Narda Gutierrez Lozano. The next sheet of paper was similar to the first, but it was about her and contained less information since she didn't present her birth certificate at the time of the ceremony and most of the information the court knew about her was through the marriage application they filled out at the carnival. Under marital status, her name read: divorced, formally married to Park Chanyeol. 

The final sheet of paper was their marriage licence and certificate, but it was a copy of it since Chanyeol had the original one that had been given to them over two months prior at the carnival. The whole thing had been crossed out in red marker and stamped with the word void. 

Chanyeol informed her, "I went to the court and bribed someone to divorce us." 

Narda looked towards him with surprise. She remembered asking him to do that for her, but she didn't think he would really do it. At that moment she had been really desperate to nullify their marriage. Then another thought came to her. It must have been difficult for him to go through with. Though their marriage was never real to begin with, she knew that it might have meant something to him, at least even a little bit. Just like her relationship with Baekhyun, it had been something one sided.

Relief also flooded to her. She wanted to leave Korea with this issue finally solved. The last thing she wanted was to leave anything pending.

Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, he added when she said nothing. "They said they couldn't erase the marriage from our official documents, so we'll always show up as formerly married. But they could file a divorce for us."

A smile formed on Narda's lips and she threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly and gratefully. "Thank you so much, Chan. I know this must have been hard for you."

His arms slowly wrapped around her, hugging her back, and he inhaled her scent, closing hie eyes sadly. How he had been longing to hold her like that since the break up. And even now, it just wasn't the same because she was no longer his. But he said something to her that was the absolute truth. Something he didn't even have to think about. "Guti, do you think I would ever do anything to hurt you?" In his words was a hidden question as well. Would Baekhyun do anything to hurt you?

Still in each other's arms, Chanyeol being the one to linger longer than he had to, he confessed to her in a voice barely above a whisper. 

"I wanted to stay married to you." He said, his voice sounding even deeper than usual at that volume. "But I wanted you to want it too. Since you didn't...I'm happy to be your friend and see you happy, even if its with someone else."

-

That night after visiting Nari, Narda got a video call from Oriana.

"Ready to come back home?" Her friend asked her with a smile. Though Oriana knew that Narda was half-happy to return to her home country, she couldn't say that she felt the same. 

She and Narda were best friends, had been best friends since middle school. They had always gone to the same schools and practically grew up together. When Narda moved to Korea for two years, Oriana missed her deeply. Now that her friend was finally coming back, Oriana was overjoyed. 

Narda gave a nod of her head, but Oriana found a sadness in her eyes. Two years in Korea and she had met so many people that meant a lot to her. She also grew fond of the country that had been her home for the past two years. But a part of her told her that it wasn't the last time she would be there. After graduating from the university, she planned to visit for the summer, and help Kyungsoo take care of the baby. After that she planned to travel back and forth between the Unites States and Korea. 

She wanted to get a job in the United States using her child development and spanish degrees. But she also wanted to have enough freedom to return to Korea if Nari woke up in the near future.

"Everything here has been solved." She informed her friend with a sigh. But then she started to give her the details. "I already turned in my resignation letter to the school and they assured me they would file it as a leave of absence in case I wanted to come back. Alda's gonna take care of the apartment's rent so Nari can have a home to return to when she wakes up." She had carefully worded, assuring that Nari would make it and would return to her apartment one day. "There are no longer any resentments with Baekhyun. And then with Chanyeol...he just dropped off our divorce papers and that makes our break up that much more real."

Oriana gasped at the news, bringing her hands up to her face dramatically. "You and Chan broke up?"

Narda nodded her head slowly.

"Since when?" Her friend demanded an answer.

"Since like two months ago." Narda said with something of a nonchalant shrug. She and Chanyeol hadn't really told anyone about the break up either. They wanted to keep it on the down low, and she hadn't even told her brother or Oriana. "I care about him and I didn't want to lead him on. We're still friends now and I really appreciate that about him. He never held our break up against me."

Oriana jutted out her bottom lip into a pout. She was clearly upset by the news as she was coming to the realization that even though Narda still loved her and considered her a close friend, they weren't as close as they once were. Distance had definitely driven a wedge between them. She didn't tell Oriana about her break up with Chanyeol right away, but it was something she would have probably told Nari. Oriana couldn't help but feel a bit replaced by Narda. But it was a normal consequence of life. 

She had done the same recently. 

When Narda left the United States to move to Korea for a year, which eventually turned into two years, Oriana got really close with Narda's younger siblings. She previously spent a lot of time at the Gutierrez Lozano's house, since she had no siblings of her own and Narda was her closest friend. When Narda left for Korea, she continued visiting her house and started spending time with Bianey and Aldair. Things changed only slightly when Aldair confessed that he was in love with her, and that confession moved something within her.

She soon started realizing she had feelings for him too. Now she sometimes felt like she was closer with him than with Narda. She told her boyfriend everything, while she hardly talked to Narda. They talked at least once a week, but that felt like a little bit. Still, it wasn't like they could talk all the time because of time differences.

"What?" Narda asked when she saw her friend's pout.

"Alda really liked Chan." Oriana pointed out. But Narda knew that already. From the moment they met, the two boys instantly clicked and were like old friends. Narda could tell her brother genuinely liked and approved of Chanyeol. She wasn't sure she would have the same luck if she went back to Baekhyun and introduced him to her brother. "He was just telling me that if Chan visits you while you're back home, we should go on another double date together. Plus, I don't think Baekhyun deserves you after everything he made you go through. Alda and I are big Chuti shippers." 

Narda couldn't help but roll her eyes playfully at her. "You gave us a ship name?"

"Its better than the ship name football fans gave me and Alda." Oriana defended with a shrug of her shoulders. "They call us Orialda." 

There was a pause as the name sunk in for her.

With a shrug of her shoulders, she ended up changing her mind. "Actually, it doesn't sound so bad when you say it out loud."

Narda cracked a smile then, at her friend's antics.

There was a short pause of silence between them. Narda really had nothing more to say, but it was just a comfortable silence, not at all awkward. When the silence was broken after a couple of minutes, Oriana was the one who spoke. She asked Narda a similar question to the one Kyungsoo had asked after everyone left the room during Nari's birthday celebration. A question she hadn't gotten around to answering.

"Have you said your goodbyes to the boys?" She wondered, raising an eyebrow at Narda.

Narda heaved a sigh. She didn't want to just pick up and leave like Yifan did almost two years prior. They had been so hurt by that because they thought he didn't trust them enough to say anything. But at the same time, she now understood how Yifan probably felt. Maybe he just didn't want to see the sad eyes begging her not to go, making her the bad guy for leaving. 

She didn't want to leave. 

She had to.

-

so now chanyeol and narda are officially divorced. and narda is a single pringle. i wanted to write two chapters today. but i went to the store with my mom and my sister, and then when i came back i was tired, so i didn't get to write anything until about two hours ago. 

i'm going to try to write the other chapter right now. but if i cant then i'll just write it tomorrow, and the end of the story will be delayed by one day. 

thank you all so much for reading. it means the entire world to me.

-clary